Discussion Themes

Two focus groups were conducted to clarify the food choice experience and food acculturation process among the international students. The management of focus group involved a series of developing discussion questions and themes, participant recruitment, choice of setting, consent process, group discussion, interview recording, transcription writing, coding, and thematic analysis.

The literature review discussed the acculturation and food choice concept to help explain the context of the study. Several themes were developed from the focus group: food related experience, new food culture that they are being exposed to, food related issues, perception on their food choice, food choice decision, and strategies that the students practiced. The meanings attached to food and the role of food for the international students were also explored. The aim was to facilitate better understanding and clarify the food choice adjustment and challenges during the migration.

The themes for discussion in the focus group sessions were carefully predetermined (based on literature), phrased, and sequenced in the questions so that the participants could easily understand them. Open-ended questions were used in the discussion guide, starting with general questions followed by more specific and focused questions depending on the participants’ responses. The discussion themes are presented in Table 13.

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Themes DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Experience upon arriving in new country

 Tell us about your experience when you first arrived?  What was interesting/ difficult when you first arrived?  Was there any food related issues that you experience?

Food choice  Describe your food habit.

 What kind of food do you prefer?

 How do you determine what food to eat?

 How do you feel about the food choice in the UK?  How do you feel about being in charge of your own food

choice?

 How different is the food choice when you first arrive and now?

Adjustment issues

 Can you accept/ adapt to the new food choice?  How does that become an issue to you during your

adjustment?

 How did it made you feel?

Adjustment strategy

 Please explain how you manage the new food choice. (accept, reject, improvise)

 How did the strategy work for you?

Culture shock/ homesickness

 Did you experience any culture shock/ stress/ homesickness? What do you do to overcome it?

 What do you missed most about your country or culture?  Does this affect how you adjustment?

Support and facilities

 What do you think about the support and facilities provided for international students?

 If you ever used any support of facilities to help you adjust to your new life, please tell us about your experience.  If you never used any, please explain why.

Table 13- Focus group discussion themes

The themes for the focus group discussion were developed from the literature review on food choice, life course perspective, and acculturation. At the beginning of the focus group discussion, the participants were encouraged to talk about their experience when they first arrived in the UK. This was to allow the researcher to gain insights on the food experiences, perception, and the challenges at the early stages of the international students’ transition. Previous studies on international students mentioned the food preference of familiar food that symbolised nostalgia and emotional attachment, sense of belonging to ethnic community, comfort, and fulfilling and emotional well-being (Brown et al., 2010; Collins, 2008). Hence, familiarity of the food was an important factor that guided the food choice of the international

126 students. Furthermore, Brown et al. (2010) also found that international students experienced significant culture shock that affected their eating habits during the first period of their migration but it was not known whether the students in this study experienced the same. So the theme on food choice experience upon arrival was proposed to better address the issue.

The next theme was proposed to explore the food choice of international students and how they constructed food choice decisions based on the availability. The theme was also addressed to encourage the students to talk about the influence of their food choice in the new country after migration and the food preferred and unacceptable in the new country. Another purpose was is to explore the influence of migration over food choice and the changes in the food choice when they first arrived until the time of the discussion.

The adjustment challenge topic was proposed next. Studies concerning the adjustment issues of international students have often examined academic concerns and challenges, sociocultural issues, and language proficiency (Zhai, 2002; Brown, 2009; Wu et al., 2011). For example, an ethnographic study by Brown and Holloway (2008) found that students’ stress level is at its height when they feel homesick and lonely because of the challenges they have to manage, such as foreign language use, and unfamiliar academic and sociocultural environment. In another study, Wu et al. (2011) found the following elements challenging to international students: language skills, academic culture, and adapting to socio cultural environment. Studies concerning the dietary habits of international students found that poor diet quality and weight gain were associated with stressful adjustment experience and challenging adaption to host culture (Pan et al., 1999; Satia-Abouta et al., 2002; Papadaki et al., 2007). The discussion over this theme would allow the researcher to understand better the adjustment challenges related to food and what contributed to the matter.

127 The next theme explored the adjustment strategy practiced by the international student to manage and overcome the challenges. According to Furnham et al. (1986), adjustment is a culture learning model whereby international students never fully adjust but they can be strategic in what they learn and employ enough behavioural traits to get by without necessarily understanding or adapting the new culture. The adjustment strategies developed by the students need to be investigated because they give explanation for the need of the strategy in the first place, whether it is because the students cannot adapt to the new culture or because the feel that they need to integrate their food practice for a better adjustment experience. Berry (1997) mentioned the following strategies with respect to acculturation and adjustment: (1) cultural maintenance (to what extent are cultural identity and characteristics are important and their maintenance strived for); and (2) contact and participation (to what extent should they become involved with another cultural group, or remain primarily between themselves). Berry’s study also mentioned the four strategies developed for the two issues: assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalisation. The focus group discussion theme based on Berry’s study would guide the participants to discuss their life course events and experience that have influenced their food choice and their adjustment strategy.

Culture shock and homesickness among international students is associated with the negative feelings upon meeting the challenges and issues associated with adjustment. Lysgaard (1955) introduced the U-curve model to describe the process of adjustment, and the model proposes that culture shock emerges on the second stage. Much criticism has been addressed over this model, for example, disagreement as to when the stage of culture shock takes place (Furnham, 1993), but there is no denial that culture shock does exist at some point over the process. The notion of homesickness has also been addressed as an area of concern of international students in their adjustment process (Stafford Jr., 1980; Rajapaksa et al., 2002; Poyrazli et al., 2007).

128 The final discussion theme is support and facilities. This theme was suggested to explore the support and facilities provided by the host country to ease the students’ adjustment experience and the purpose was to reflect the function of the international office and local resources such as transport, food and accommodation, and overall environment that could help the students in their adjustment process. The participants’ experience in using the support and facilities provided will be discussed and the findings will contribute to improve the resources to aid their adjustment process.

6.2 Preliminary Data Analysis

Thematic analysis was applied for the preliminary study and both of the audio recorded focus group discussions were transcribed verbatim. The steps in conducting a thematic analysis (Braun et al., 2006) as presented in Chapter 5 were followed. The data analysis commenced with familiarising with the data. The transcribing was conducted by the researcher herself which allowed her to become familiar with the participants language and meanings. The transcripts were then read and reread to bring understanding of the data (Braun et al., 2006). Next, initial codes were identified using line by line coding and using colour highlights. The codes were then grouped to search for themes. For example, codes such as “enjoy,” “comfort,” “fulfilling,” and “home” were grouped under the theme “meanings of food.” Next, the themes were reviewed and refined and some themes that have connections such as “cost of halal food” and “cost of eating out” were merged under “the influences of resources” based on the life course perspective, which included budget as the influence over food choice. Finally, the themes were redefined and classified under appropriate themes. For example, “affordable healthy food” was changed to “healthier food options” and then changed again to “food adjustment strategy.” The development of the themes into observation and interview protocol for the main study is presented in Table 14.

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Preliminary study Main data collection (phase 1) Main data collection (phase 2)

Category from focus group discussions

 Co national friends- support and guide food choice upon arrival

 Perception on food choice availability  Perception on new food choice  Perception on British food

 Perception on familiar and ethnic food  Willingness to try other food

 The influence of resources (based on Life Course Perspective)

 The influenced of personal factors (based on Life Course Perspective)

 Healthier food choice  Meanings attached to food

 The changes in food choice during transition  The food adjustment strategy

 Sharing food culture with others Themes developed;

LCP influence of food choice Food adjustment challenge Food adjustment strategy Food acculturation process

Accompanied shop

 Grocery shopping behaviour through observation  Reporting using a checklist and personal memo

 Notes on behaviour and specific action, strategies when doing grocery shopping

Themes for interview

1)Exposure, experiences & perception upon arrival, based on Life Course Perspective

2)Adjustment challenges and strategy 4)Food acculturation

Interview question guide

 Food related experience upon arrival  Food related issues-difficulties/ interesting  Expectation of new food choice

 Perception on new food choice available.

 Food choice practice (daily food preparation; cooking, grocery shopping, eating out, unfamiliar food, other culture)

 Grocery shopping and the food purchased (based on accompanied shop checklist)

 How do you decide food choices?  Acceptance/rejection of new food

 Strategy to help adapt to new food choices

 Home country food. (Homesick, ethnic/traditional meal, memories/symbol of food

 Food provided around university-perception New themes that emerged:

 Healthier food options and healthier lifestyle  Challenges in grocery shopping

 Being independent and making responsible choices  Trying to lose weight, maintaining health

 Halal food options

 Being cautious over label and claims  Importance of cooking skills

Accompanied shop

Grocery shopping behaviour through observation Reporting using a checklist

Notes on behaviour and specific action not on checklist Comparing behaviour between first and second observation using previous checklist

Topics for interview

1) Compare- experience during arrival and after three months in the new country

2) Food related issues

3) Perception on your food choices

4) Have you gained more food related experience and exposure? (more places to shop for food, eating and trying new food, more cooking, more eating out) 5) Grocery shopping and the food purchased (based

on accompanied shop observation)

6) Perception on halal food and labeling claims 7) Changes in strategy when making food choice

decision

8) Healthier food options and healthier lifestyle 9) Meanings attached to home country food and being

homesick

10) Perception on overall food choice experience 11) Support from university and other sources

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